State warns aquarium about leaking water near South Platte
Todd Hartman, Rocky Mountain News
Published January 30, 2007 at midnight
State regulators have issued the equivalent of a warning - and an order to fix problems - to officials at the Downtown Aquarium after discovering the facility was leaking an estimated 3,000 gallons of saltwater per day adjacent to the South Platte River.
The state notification included a new charge: the aquarium also was releasing "filter backwash water" from aquarium tanks into the environment. That water, different from the saltwater leaking from a pipe, was apparently discharged into a wetland next to the aquarium.
"That may be an acceptable thing, but they're supposed to get a permit," said Steve Gunderson, director of the state's Water Quality Control Division, which issued the warning notice, called a "compliance advisory."
While such an advisory isn't as serious as some steps, state officials said other penalties remain a possibility.
The Rocky Mountain News reported Jan. 17 that an anonymous tipster had alerted the media of a significant leak at the aquarium, one that had gone unreported by aquarium management for nine months.
A corporate official for the aquarium told the Rocky that crews had worked diligently, but unsuccessfully, to find the source of the leak. He also said they had not found any contamination from the leak in several areas around the aquarium.
The official, Jeff Cantwell, senior vice president of development for Landry's Restaurants Inc., said the company wasn't dragging its feet on the work.
A new crew with expertise in such problems was to attempt to find and repair the leak beginning Jan. 20. But late last week state officials said they didn't know whether the leak had been repaired. And on Monday state health department spokesman Mark Salley said, "I think that's a better question for (the aquarium)."
Cantwell didn't return a call Monday.
The advisory outlines several steps aquarium officials must take to rectify the situation. Those include providing a detailed description and timeline of efforts to find and fix the leaking saltwater pipeline and certifying there are no more leaks or other discharges undisclosed to state health officials.
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